'Release money to Karnataka under MGNREGS'

Karnataka MP R Dhruvanarayana on Friday demanded the Centre to release Rs 1,090 core balance amount to Karnataka under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

Raising the issue in zero hour in the Lok Sabha, he said during 2015-16, the Union Ministry of Rural Development claimed that it had released Rs 1,946 crore, but the actual release was just Rs 991.55 crore. Though the state government had released its share of Rs 153.80 crore fully and spent an additional Rs 750 crore to generate employments during drought-hit areas, the Ministry had not released its share of money.

Even in 2016-17, out of Rs 3,255 crore allocated by the Centre for the state, only Rs. 2,261 crore was released. Even the Karnataka government had spent Rs 1,425 crore to clear wage and material liability of the scheme.

A total of Rs 1, 090 crore is supposed to be released by the Centre and the government should take immediate steps to release the same, he said.